Tale of a Lost Girl's Journey
by tsunderedere
Summary: a story written in first person about a girl's unfortunate entrance into Gensokyo and her antics that follow. will update frequently. please review/critique!
1. 1: Where?

As I open my eyes, the bright sunlight sears my corneas, driving my bleary gaze shut. I'm not going to open them, so instead I groan helplessly from my grounded location for a good few minutes.

Where was I? I don't recall falling asleep outdoors, but I can tell that the surface under me is hard and it's too warm to be indoors. Mustering up what strength I can, I prop myself up against the surface behind me.

I slouch forward as soon as I shift from laying to sitting. My spine practically creaks in the way an old door would, telling me that I've been on the ground far too long. I regret my lazy whining momentarily.

My whereabouts remain a mystery to me as a blunt pain courses through my cranium, cutting off my current train of thought and replacing it with speculation as to why my head hurts. I attest it to the ground below me's state of extreme solidity.

I go for attempt two at opening my eyes, squinting and utilizing my eyelashes as shade while they adjust to the blaring beams of light. It's sunny outside and exceptionally so. It's a fresh change from the usual smog in my city. I guess I must not be there.

I'm strangely accepting of the warmth and clarity, and even though I wonder why I'm not worried that I can't be home, other things concern me. I raise an arm to the back of my head, running my fingers through my hair until I notice a wet patch. I withdraw the appendage, glancing down at my hand.

A red substance is smeared across otherwise pale skin.

_It's blood. I must've hit my head,_ I conclude, wiping it off on the ground next to me. _And I think I'm still bleeding._ If I had been knocked unconscious out here, it wasn't long ago. I can at least recognize my own fresh blood.

Before I deal with that, though, it would be best to get a bearing of where I even am. I raise my neck up far enough to get a good look at my surroundings, although my peripheral vision is a bit cloudy.

I had been lying on sunbaked gray stairs that extended for a long climb below me. My eyes focus and I notice it's definitely not any kind of cement, but carefully carved stone bricks, and if I weren't in such a strange situation, I would be admiring the craftsmanship.

Beyond that, the stone bricks fade off into a brown, dirt path, navigating its way through a forest. To the sides of the stairs, there's a bit of grass, then matching stone walls that couldn't be much taller than four feet. They reminded me of dams, keeping the terrain from collapsing on the stairs that I could assume to be dug into the hill, or mountain.

_Those would be easy to scale,_ I note for no reason in particular. My thoughts begin drifting a bit.

Oh, right. What did I hit my head on? I feel that I've recovered well enough to turn around, expecting to see just more stairs, albeit bloodstained.

Instead, behind me is a red-painted structure- no, not painted red with my blood- that gives off a faithful feel, though I can't pinpoint why. There are two red pillars on either side of the stairway, joined at the top by a horizontal, slightly downward arched piece of the same color. These are repeated at a certain interval that I didn't care enough about to discern up to the top of what I now deem a mountain. To call it a hill would be an understatement, maybe even an insult.

The idea of climbing the steps crosses my mind, and I begin to stand before my nerves remind me of the throbbing in my skull. That won't go away for a while, though, so through sheer willpower I force myself to advance to the top of the mountain.

I never was one for stamina, and the climb up starts to wear out my legs. My air supply shallows by a lot, and soon enough I'm exhausted. Thankfully, though, I hit the top of the mountain before I seek the nearest red pillar and press my weight against it. I know that if I sit down again, I won't get back up.

The sight shown to me is a feast for my eyes. The forest that sat to the sides and below the stairs leading up follows and continues to flourish up here, sitting on the edges of the mostly cleared out area that I have been led to.

Behind another larger and inviting red gate, a traditional-looking shrine sits atop the mountain, its architecture ornate and interesting. Details are carved into much of the wood that I can't make out too well from my distance. Based on its size, I assume that it also would serve as housing for someone.

On the front porch of it sits a decently sized wooden box, and a brunette girl wearing rather peculiar red clothes, much like the garments of a typical 'Miko', sitting on top of it, conversing with someone next to her—

People! It takes me a minute to register, but I realize that's what I really needed right now. With what I have on me limited to a simple hoodie, jeans that lack the pockets to hold anything more than a phone or wallet, and generic sneakers, it's not like I can solve the dilemma of my head wound without someone else's help. I'm not savvy enough to carry bandages around.

I push myself off from my support beam and start in that direction once more, crossing about half the distance between us before the girl's head turns to me.

"Something wrong, Reims?" her conversational partner coos. From the voice, the other person is female. The brunette—no, 'Reims', doesn't respond to her.

"Oi. You lost or what?" she calls over to me. I scratch the side of my head. I'm lost, but suddenly I feel baffled at how I wouldn't know of a place like this existing near where I reside. I don't remember doing any traveling. I nod, and then take into account that she can't see subtle gestures from where I am.

"Sort of," I answer, continuing to close the distance between us. She gives me a funny look.

"You look awful," chimed in the voice of the other girl, who I haven't bothered to look at yet.

I don't answer to that one, averting my eyes. I clear my throat. "Can, uh, you tell me where I am? I haven't seen or heard anything about wherever this is in my life."

Her already apprehensive stare contorts even more, as if it wasn't fathomable that I don't know where I am. Reims's gaze shifts to the top of my head, which I guess is still bloody, because the weird look I was getting became somewhat sympathetic. "You're at my shrine," the girl says slowly. "Where'd you come from?"

I truthfully don't have an answer to that question. I know I live in a city, but which one? "…Detroit?" My response came out as more of a question than an answer.

"Where," she reiterates. "What part of Gensokyo?"

"I'm sorry, what's a Gensokyo?"

Her amber hued eyes lower, her features looking now exasperated. She gestures a thumb to the open paper door of the shrine and looks expectantly at me. I don't move.

". . . go in," the brunette grumbles after realizing I didn't understand what she meant.

"Oh. Sorry, I—""Go. In."

I oblige, shuffling on with my eyes towards the floor. "Take off your shoes. You'll be here a while," she adds. I oblige to that as well, taking a seat on the floor inside, next to a low table in the center of the room. The door is shut behind me.


	2. 2: Problem-Solver

_"Eh? So, could it be? Another human spirited away? I haven't seen one for a while, exciting, ze!" The golden-haired girl reclined against the wooden pillar of the shrine, a wide grin plastered onto her face._

_"Oh, shut it. It isn't that funny. It's really something sad for her to have ended up here. Besides, for all we know, it could be the hag's doing," replied Reimu, her tone somewhat hushed. _

_"Didn't she promise to be responsible?"_

_"She's the judge of what's considered responsible around here."_

_The blonde blinks in response to the other girl. "That's not fair, y'know. You should knock her down a peg, the old fashioned way."_

_"What? I might be able to beat her with the spell cards, but you and I both know the outcome of that, Marisa."_

_"Yeah, yeah, whatever! I've got some places to loot, now. Hit me up with more news later, 'kay?" With that, she snatches up her broom and darts off into the sky._

The door slides open.

"Reims" enters the room, stepping out of her shoes with ease. They looked strapped down and secure to me, but I guess she's practiced that if it's 'her' shrine.

That leads me to another question; is she acting like she's a god or something? Calling this shrine hers seems somewhat self-absorbed. Maybe she's a spoiled daddy's girl—

"What's with the staring?" The same apprehensive stare came back to me, and I abruptly turn my head in the other direction.

"Sorry."

The girl walks into an adjacent room, and I hear some water running. The pattern of the noise is odd, and it gets more intense between pumping noises. The sound stops and she returns with a small, wet towel, throwing it to me. I'm slapped in the face with the projectile rag.

I peel it off and wipe down my face before anything else. "For your head, genius," she sighs. I debate on glaring at her. I knew that, but it's hot outside and I wanted to cool myself off. I move the rag from my face to the back of my head, pressing down against where the wound was. The water stings a bit, but I think I'll be alright.

She joins me at the opposite side of the table, sitting cross-legged despite wearing a skirt. It's long enough to allow her to do that, though, so I suppose that's her logic. My eyes shift back up to her and the girl starts to talk.

"I want to know how you got here," she states, watching me tend to my head.

"The stairs." It's an honest response, but from the look on her face, she seems to think I was trying to retort rudely. "I mean, I woke up on them, and my head was bleeding. I don't have a clue how I got here." Her expression returns to its normal one.

"If that's the case, you should stay here for the night. I don't want to go deal with other people's crap, so you'll do for keeping me busy, right?"

Her words sting a bit, but then again, I'm still some stranger to her. "If it suits you," I murmur. Off-putting silence falls between us, and I'm left to face the brunette rather awkwardly. She dusts her outfit a bit, continuing to watch me. Finding myself to grow tired of the lack of noise, I clear my throat.

"May I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead," responds the other. "By the way, do you want tea? I want tea."

I disregard her offer for tea until I'm able to get my question out, wondering a bit about this girl's conversational skills. She had practically tried to change the subject before I even asked her what I was going to.

"Just who are you? I want to know a bit about where I am and, well, who I'm with," I begin. "As attractive as this place is, I'm kind of worried."

It's not the only thing on my mind, but not knowing how I got here really isn't something to be pleased with. It ticks me off even further that I can't remember where I came from in the first place. I know I was a high school student in a rather large urban area, but there are a lot of those, and possibilities are endless.

My memory's fault doesn't end there, either. I can't remember the name of friends, acquaintances, family…no, I don't think I even remember my own name. The more I ponder them, the more urgent these issues seem to be, but I still feel apathetic about them.

With an upwards stretch, my new caretaker started to answer my question. "My name is Reimu Hakurei," Oh, so not Reims. "And I'm pretty widely known as the resident butt-kicker problem-solver throughout Gensokyo. I guess I'm kind of like a one-man police force. It gets tiring after a while, you know? I have a lot of responsibility, and every time someone has something up, it adds onto that. And I'm expected to upkeep the shrine, too!"

She rambles for a fair bit, and I do my best to listen and occasionally summarize in my head what she's said so far. Overall, the most important things would be that she's Reimu, she deals with everyone's crap, is short on funds, and basically who I need to go to for learning whatever I need.

Along with that, I'm given a brief history lesson on the Hakurei Shrine, which I shamelessly tuned out of. Reimu also mentioned something about a human village and the locations of places. My mental recap is interrupted by a paper being slid across the table. I look at it.

"Here's a map of Gensokyo, for reference. You can keep it," Reimu says. The map feels more like an ink sketch than a map, with amusing illustrations and labels. A key to some of the symbols is scrawled at the side of the paper.

I furrow my eyebrows as I examine it. The Hakurei Shrine is pretty far from a concentrated bundle of places in the center, all drawn together by a river flowing through the middle. There's no evidence of any way leading out of Gensokyo except for something called Netherworld Passage and some word relating to justice that I don't understand. The map gives off the feeling that Gensokyo is just one large, isolated land mass, but there's nothing of a shore. My curiosity is brought to a peak. "Where is this place in relevance to other countries?"

Reimu's eyes flicker with a kind of melancholy. "That doesn't matter."

"It does matter," I say. "How am I going to get home?"

"You don't even know where you're from!"

That does the trick to shutting me up. What home am I going to go back to if I can't even remember where I live? I can't miss what, according to my memories, I never had. My lips purse shut.

"I'm sorry, but once you're here, you're going to have to adapt," the priestess goes on. "The only person who can get you back is highly incompetent and would probably drop you in the middle of Africa. I think that's what she would do."

Nodding in response, I gently fold the map in half once each in the typical hot dog-hamburger method of making a square, slipping it into the pocket of my hoodie. The apathy from earlier probably stemmed from me subconsciously recognizing this, but I still wonder about this place's location.

"Can I at least know why I can't get back?"

Reimu hesitates before speaking again. "Since I don't think you were gapped in, and you showed up with amnesia…"

Amnesia is the word to describe my predicament. Why haven't I thought of that?

"…you would have gotten here in a similar way to everything else. Let me start with this; Gensokyo is a land of fantasy. Gensokyo is where the things that were left behind in the outside world come after they're forgotten about."

Was I forgotten about?

"You probably thought these sights were otherworldly, right? Shrines like these aren't normal anymore. They've vanished from society, haven't they? Whether something wants to or not, once forgotten about, once deemed a myth…it's moved to this place. Gensokyo is separated from the outside world by a spiritual boundary, and maintaining it is also one of my responsibilities."

Even if she doesn't quite look or act the part, if she isn't bluffing, Reimu is really a hard worker. It would be rude to doubt someone who lets in some concussed girl out of charity.

A frown is on her face now, and she stands up. "Yeah, I'm going to go make some tea. Don't think too hard, please."

I wonder why she looks so upset, and then I think I'm an idiot. This place was obviously forgotten about at some point and so it's here. I can hear a loud squealing noise, probably from a teapot reaching its peak heat, wondering how she made that so quickly. Maybe there was some magical tea-heating technique that was abandoned and left to Gensokyo, too.

She re-enters with a tray of two cups and the teapot. Steam floats into the air, and the already hot room gets worse, but I don't care. I put down the wet and now bloody rag from my head as she sets the tray down. Reimu picks up the pot and fills the two cups. She reaches over to take one for herself, bringing it to her face and pausing. I imitate her.

"Since you're here, I think it's a good idea to get you a change of clothes," Reimu says as she sips from her cup without hesitation. I wonder how she doesn't burn her tongue. "..I'll take you to the human village, I guess. Go put your shoes on."

I'm caught mid-drink and put the tea down. "Already..? Isn't it far?"

"Not with me."


End file.
